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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22915612">Marked</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSorceress22/pseuds/DragonSorceress22'>DragonSorceress22</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blood, Don't copy to another site, I meant to write porn, Kaito is generally Thirsty, M/M, One Shot, Sexy Times, Swearing, Vampire AU, completely indulgent garbage, i'm as confused as you are, non-modern setting, suggestive stuff, that's as specific as you'll get from me about it, that's not what happened somehow, vampire!Kaito</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:43:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,995</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22915612</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSorceress22/pseuds/DragonSorceress22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shinichi’s got nothing to lose and everything to gain.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan/Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>381</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Marked</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Decided to throw this hot mess together in response to a prompt from the kaishin discord. </p><p>Beta’d by <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/solomonara/pseuds/solomonara/works">solomonara</a> - there’s no better beta for a vampire party!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Marked</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Another day, another place. Shinichi had been on the run so long that he didn’t have it in him to question the comfortable little town nestled directly in the shadow of a looming Gothic castle in the middle of nowhere. And then he heard about the murders.</p><p>He might have been on the run, but he was still a detective. He investigated, and uncovered exactly nothing about the ominous castle while he was at it. No one spoke of it. No one looked in its general direction. When he asked about it, he was ignored or diverted. Every. Single. Time.</p><p>The town was completely normal apart from that. Everyone was concerned about the killings, they were polite and helpful toward the investigation, they wanted the murderer found and apprehended.</p><p>But that castle…</p><p>Shinichi staked the place out that night and was rewarded with a glimpse of the massive doors cracking open to admit a shadowy figure halfway through the night. He ran after it, fearless. It might have nothing to do with the murders, but he’d get <em>some</em> answers about the mysteries of this town, one way or another.</p><p> </p><p>Kaito was exhausted – more drained than he’d ever been. He dragged his feet toward the back of the long, cavernous entrance hall and tried desperately to come up with a plan. He was running out of time. At this rate, he’d never find the killer, and the murders might never stop.</p><p>At this rate, he’d never see another moonrise.</p><p>And then, across the vast entrance hall, one of the front doors creaked open and a man stepped in.</p><p>Rage thrashed through Kaito and he was there in an instant, pressing the man to the massive door with a grip on his shirt collar and the razor-sharp nails of his other hand poised at the man’s throat. “Stranger,” Kaito growled out. “<em>Murderer</em>.”</p><p>Pinned to the door, Shinichi let out a disbelieving scoff, but the pressure on his chest was so great it came out more like a cough. “<em>That’s </em>your reasoning?” he managed anyway. “Coincidence is not grounds for execution, I don’t care <em>who</em> you are.” He reached up and pushed Kaito’s threatening hand away easily. Then, taking in all he could from the body language of the silhouette, the immediately obvious strength and skill, and the man’s initial assumption, he played his hunch. “Kill me and a murderer walks. Two, actually,” he added with a sour look at the shadowy man. “And I’m not okay with that.”</p><p>Kaito stared hard at him through the gloom of the unlit hall. He couldn’t catch his breath. His body felt like it was seizing up, his muscles rebelling against such liberal use when he’d provided them nothing at all to run on. His legs gave way and he collapsed into the stranger’s reflexive catch.</p><p>Shinichi dragged Kaito’s arm over his shoulders, mostly propping him up, but Kaito’s head hung down, a darker, messy sort of outline blocking the few rays of moonlight Shinichi’s eyes were slowly adjusting to. Shinichi bent his head in toward Kaito’s and heard haggard breathing… then saw the glimmer of fangs.</p><p>“Ah.” Shinichi said shortly. “Vampire?”</p><p>Kaito wilted again and Shinichi sank to the floor under the sudden weight.</p><p>“Starving vampire?” Shinichi pressed.</p><p>“Bond.” Kaito’s voice was weak but he felt Shinichi lean in again to listen. “Blood for… protection. Can’t protect. Can’t… take.”</p><p>“The murders. You lost your food source because of the murders.” He didn’t bother to pause or think. He was already rolling up his sleeve. “How much do you need?”</p><p>“<em>Anything</em>,” Kaito responded, delirious. “But I <em>can’t</em>–”</p><p>“I’m not from the town,” Shinichi said, and pushed his wrist up against Kaito’s teeth.</p><p>Kaito raised his head just a little, his wide eyes two glints in the dark entrance hall. “Thank you,” he whispered and Shinichi winced at the pain of the bite.</p><p>It felt… strange more than painful after the initial puncture. Shinichi let out a breath and tried to arrange himself a little more comfortably on the floor. He could feel Kaito pulling hard at the wounds in his wrist and he wondered vaguely how long it would take for him to finish. There was still a murderer out there, after all, and this potential lead had turned out to be anything but.</p><p>He hadn’t made up his mind yet about his next line of investigation when Kaito slowly drew back and licked the wounds clean. Before Shinichi had a chance to get up, though, Kaito pressed onto him, coaxing him down onto the floor until he was spread beneath Kaito.</p><p>“Stay?” Kaito breathed against his neck.</p><p>“What for?” Shinichi asked slowly. His heart was rushing a little now. Fear? Or… His eyes raked over what little of Kaito he could see in the dark. He seemed stronger already. He’d gotten what he’d needed, surely. Enough for now, at any rate, but…</p><p>But that was his tongue, strangely cool, running along Shinichi’s pulse, and at least <em>some</em> of the blood he’d taken had gone to… hard use.</p><p>“A good time?” Kaito responded against his skin.</p><p>Right.</p><p>Old sensibilities automatically rose up, telling Shinichi to politely excuse himself and take his leave.</p><p>Then he remembered he was Marked.</p><p>“Yeah,” Shinichi breathed without a single thought more. “I’ll stay.” And he grabbed a fistful of Kaito’s hair and tilted his own head back, offering all that Kaito wanted and more.</p><p>Kaito took the invitation and bit at Shinichi’s neck, but Shinichi was surprised to feel only bruising pressure. No prick. No sharpness. No fangs. Kaito suckled at his skin like Shinichi was a lifespring regardless, and quick fingers popped open button after button down Shinichi’s shirt.</p><p>Shinichi gasped out his mix of pain and pleasure when Kaito ground his hips down against Shinichi’s. The floor was <em>stone</em>, and if all the lore about vampiric strength and speed were true, Shinichi was going to regret not speaking up sooner rather than later.</p><p>“This castle have anything softer than flagstone?” he asked, breathless.</p><p>Kaito was still worrying at his neck but the motion softened into something less teeth and more lips, and then he was humming a little laugh against his throat. “I do have some very nice carpets on the tower stairs. To dull the echoes, you know.”</p><p>Shinichi visibly balked, getting his hands on the floor and sliding himself out from under Kaito just a little. Carpeted <em>stairs</em>? That was his other option? So much for a good time. “Look, maybe this isn’t such a–”</p><p>“I was kidding,” Kaito said gently. “Would the king-size in the second floor master suite do, or should we go for the nearest chaise lounge? Your standards seem so low I’m honestly not sure which you would prefer at this point.”</p><p>“Shut up,” Shinichi muttered, blushing, and he let Kaito carry him away.</p><p>Within seconds of hitting the blood red sheets, Kaito had Shinichi’s shirt off and his pants undone, though Shinichi was still only fumbling with whatever soft, long-sleeved thing was covering Kaito’s chest.</p><p>“May I ask your name?” Kaito asked as his licks and bites on Shinichi’s neck turned to kisses along his jaw.</p><p>“Kudou Shinichi,” Shinichi answered. He’d finally clawed the shirt up Kaito’s back so that it bunched around his neck, annoying enough to distract him from kissing at Shinichi and tug it the rest of the way off himself. “What about you?”</p><p>Kaito paused, pulled Shinichi’s pants off like a magician displacing a table cloth, then said, “Kaito. Just Kaito.” It was a name he hadn’t been called in what might as well have been forever, but it was still how he thought of himself. It would be nice to have a lover call him that too, maybe. He was willing to find out.</p><p>Shinichi gasped then gasped again, forgetting to let his breath out as Kaito dipped in and moved his lips right down Shinichi’s chest and stomach. He was feeling a little fluttery, and more than a little aroused, and Kaito made himself right at home mouthing Shinichi’s growing erection through his underwear.</p><p>“I feel I should ask,” Kaito said, barely pausing as Shinichi tried not to buck his hips or latch a death grip into Kaito’s hair. “Are you insane?” He gave a good hard suck to the side of Shinichi’s shaft, his underwear wet with saliva and precum, then popped his head up again to tack on quickly, “Not judging. Just curious.”</p><p>Shinichi let out a breath at the small break in sensation and sagged back against the (numerous, fluffy, magnificent) pillows. Part of him thought he should be hotly denying such a claim, but…</p><p>“I wandered into town, snuck into a castle, offered you my blood, then agreed to have sex with you even though the first thing you did was threaten to kill me. I can see why you would think that.”</p><p>His underwear was gone. Where did it go? <em>Fuck</em>, never mind.</p><p>Kaito hummed in agreement, then bobbed his head up again, looking up from between Shinichi’s legs with those wide, curious eyes. “So then?”</p><p>Shinichi opened his mouth to answer. Kaito dipped back down and the breath Shinichi had meant to be words rushed out of him as a guttural moan. He didn’t try again until Kaito eased back to catch his breath and kick off his own pants and underwear.</p><p>“No,” Shinichi panted. “I’m not insane.” He watched Kaito in the moonlight off the veranda, welcomed him as he crawled over Shinichi again and leaned down until they were sharing breath. “I’ve just got nothing to lose,” he said, and rose up to claim a long and desperate kiss.</p><p> </p><p>Shinichi wasn’t sure he had ever, <em>ever</em> felt so exhausted and so <em>good</em> at the same time. He felt like every single inch of him had been worked over, but in the best way. Like some kind of poison had been sucked from the wound of his existence. He felt <em>light</em>.</p><p>Kaito, however, reminded him of a wilting rose. He was lying on his side next to Shinichi, utterly limp, his eyes barely open, and his breathing edging toward that same raggedness it had held just before he’d collapsed in Shinichi’s arms in the entry hall downstairs. Shinichi rolled off of his back to face him and pushed his fingers through Kaito’s hair.</p><p>“How often do you need to drink?”</p><p>“How often do you need to eat?” Kaito replied with a short laugh.</p><p>Fair point. “Well how long has it been?” Shinichi pressed.</p><p>“Mm…” It looked like Kaito had started to stretch but cut the motion short, like his muscles were rebelling. He curled in on himself instead and muttered to the pillow, “Three hours.”</p><p>Three amazing fucking hours. Shinichi wasn’t sure how he’d managed to keep up. He blamed it on Kaito.</p><p>Shinichi reached out and shoved Kaito’s shoulder lightly. “You know what I mean. How long had you been starving when I found you?”</p><p>For a few seconds Kaito was quiet. Then, “Tonight would have been the fifth night.”</p><p>Five days. Five <em>days</em>? Five days without food. It was a wonder he’d been able to keep any of Shinichi’s blood down, let alone be capable of <em>all that</em> afterward.</p><p>Shinichi pushed himself up against the pillows and insistently gathered Kaito to his chest. “That little bit you took before wasn’t enough. Drink.” He let his fingers slide into Kaito’s dark hair to tip his head toward Shinichi’s neck. He tilted his own head back and closed his eyes, waiting.</p><p>Nothing happened. Then he heard Kaito let out a quiet, conflicted whine.</p><p>“It’s all right,” Shinichi said gently. “Take what you need.”</p><p>He felt Kaito’s weight shift on the bed almost immediately this time. He straddled Shinichi, skin to skin, everything still slick and raw and excitable, and Kaito’s cool tongue traced that first fierce hickey on the side of Shinichi’s neck. Then he eased in, fang to artery, and bit.</p><p> </p><p>For four nights, Shinichi nursed Kaito back to full strength, and something… <em>something </em>Kaito gave him in return kept Shinichi strong as well. He knew the blood loss should ordinarily have killed him by now, or at the very least weakened him for how much Kaito had to take regularly with no chance for Shinichi’s body to naturally replenish.</p><p>But Shinichi felt fine. During the day, he investigated the murders in the town, and at night he stayed with Kaito, as inseparable as they could possibly be.</p><p>And maybe if Shinichi hadn’t been Marked he’d worry about the future and how long this could go on. But he <em>was</em> Marked.</p><p>So it didn’t matter.</p><p> </p><p>Kaito stretched languidly in bed. It was moonrise and he’d slept <em>so</em> well – better than he had in ages. He was satiated in every possible way, strengthened by Shinichi’s blood, soothed by Shinichi’s company. Everything was <em>good</em>.</p><p>He slid from the sheets and pulled on a loose pair of pants. Shinichi wasn’t there. He’d been planning to go into town again that day to continue his investigation. Kaito had been so glutted on all his good fortune he’d forgotten for a moment about the murders. Shinichi <em>had</em> discovered vampiric wards that had been placed recently and strategically around the town, but it was hardly an excuse. Wards or no wards, Kaito had failed to keep his bond with the town, and people had died.</p><p>Kaito sighed and opened the door to the bedroom… and went cold at the sight of Shinichi lying on the velvet runner in the dim stone hallway.</p><p>“Shinichi!”</p><p>The air snapped with the speed of Kaito’s movement. He knelt and gathered Shinichi into his arms. Already, Shinichi was stirring.</p><p>“…Kaito?”</p><p>Kaito ducked back into the bedroom and laid Shinichi in the tangle of silk sheets. The bed would still have been warm had Kaito had any warmth to give. He swore silently and gathered the sheets over and around Shinichi.</p><p>“What time is it?” Shinichi muttered, and started to sit up, of all things. Kaito held him down effortlessly with a hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“Moonrise,” he answered. “What were you doing in the hallway?”</p><p>“The hallway?” Shinichi’s eyebrows knotted. “Coming to bed?”</p><p>“Well you missed. I wanted you to make yourself comfortable and I know the rugs are very nice but maybe just come the extra twenty feet next time, okay, Detective?” His worry easily breached the joking words. His nails, dark talons he’d been so pleased to see etching livid lines across Shinichi’s bare skin, now combed delicately against Shinichi’s forehead. He looked pale. There was barely a contrast between Kaito’s own bone-white fingers and Shinichi’s faded cheek. “What happened?” Kaito whispered.</p><p>“Nothing happened.” Shinichi caught Kaito’s hand gently, kissed his palm, and used the distraction to prop himself up before Kaito could stop him. “I didn’t find any new leads. The victims don’t have anything in common besides being from the same town–”</p><p>“That’s not what I meant, Shinichi,” Kaito growled, but it was all frustration and no aggression. “I just found you passed out in the hallway. Do you remember anything?”</p><p>Shinichi considered that. “Oh,” he said. “More tired than I realized I guess. I’m fine.”</p><p>A thought dawned on the edges of Kaito’s realization. Slowly, before he had quite grasped the reason he needed to know, he asked, “Shinichi, when did you head into town today?”</p><p>“After breakfast.”</p><p>The dutiful truth. Kaito pressed further. “When did you eat breakfast?”</p><p>“After you fell asleep.”</p><p>And there it was. Shinichi, as usual, had stayed up all night with Kaito, feeding his every need, and then he’d gone straight into town to track down a murderer without any rest for himself.</p><p>“Shinichi,” Kaito said, a whisper that caved somewhere around the middle. “You can’t–”</p><p>“You need me, Kaito.” The response was quick, like he knew the argument that was coming and would have exactly none of it. “And the town needs me. I can protect you <em>and</em> them. You just have to let me.”</p><p>“And what about you? Who’s going to protect <em>you</em>, since you’re clearly not doing it yourself?”</p><p>“I don’t need protecting–”</p><p>“And you don’t seem to want it either. You throw yourself right into the arms of things that could get you killed.” Kaito’s hand pressed against his own chest and he met Shinichi’s eyes, challenging. “Why don’t you care?”</p><p>“Because it <em>doesn’t matter</em>.”</p><p>They stared at each other. A little of Shinichi’s color had returned with his anger. Kaito sat slowly on the edge of the bed and let his hand rest over Shinichi’s. “Tell me,” he said.</p><p>Shinichi gritted his teeth. “I’m Marked.” He said it with a bitter, waspish bite of satisfaction – like it was the last word of the argument that made him indisputably justified in all he’d done.</p><p>Kaito’s eyes went wide. “You were?”</p><p>“I <em>am</em>,” Shinichi growled back. “Once they Mark you, that’s it. You just wait for death. But I’m not just going to lie down and take it. I’ll figure out these murders and once the killer is caught you and the town will be all right. If I can at least do that, then–”</p><p>He cut off. Kaito had started laughing, slow at first but building to a full, bright sound of complete <em>amusement</em>. Shinichi dove at him, pitching them both right over the edge of the bed and onto the unforgiving stone of the floor. He pushed himself upright, straddling Kaito’s middle, and brought his fist down hard on Kaito’s mouth. Then he rolled away from him with a groan and stood with his back to Kaito, cradling his sore hand.</p><p>Kaito had stopped laughing, at least, but he wasn’t hurt in the slightest. Still, he could taste the sweet gloss of blood just on the edge of one fang and he got to his feet to return to Shinichi’s side. Gentle but insistent, he took Shinichi’s injured hand, licked the slight welling of blood from his knuckles, then kissed the backs of his fingers.</p><p>“You are <em>not</em> Marked,” Kaito said, firm and clear. “Because the thing that makes Marking so fearsome – the thing that makes it a taboo bond – is that it overwrites any other bond the victim has made. You’ll die, no matter what other bindings you’re under. But do you know what else is a taboo bond?” He took another lick of Shinichi’s blood and Shinichi stared.</p><p>“What.” It was a realization and a flat rejection all at once.</p><p>“Giving your blood to a vampire? Yeah, Shinichi,” Kaito chuckled. “That’s a taboo bond. And it overwrites anything else.”</p><p>“But we didn’t <em>make</em> a bond!” Shinichi objected. “There was no exchange!”</p><p>Kaito shook his head. “Shinichi,” he said seriously. “What did you exchange for the Mark?”</p><p>Shinichi opened his mouth. Closed it.</p><p>Kaito nodded this time. “Taboo bonds only take. They don’t give.”</p><p>“But… your bond with the town…?”</p><p>“That isn’t a taboo bond; it’s just a normal bond. I offered protection for the entire town. The entire town agreed to leave various small blood offerings that I can come get at night. I don’t bite anyone. It makes a difference. Old man Nakamori knows his way around bond law,” he added with a shrug at Shinichi’s baffled look. “He made sure we were legit. It was… good of him to do.”</p><p>Shinichi had known from the start that the town was more than just a blood bank to Kaito, but there was a much stronger degree of caring there than Shinichi had first realized. “Kaito,” he started slowly. “Why did the town need protecting? What started this?”</p><p>A shadow passed over Kaito’s eyes. “A dark, nameless organization. They killed the town’s first protector… and Marked me.”</p><p>Something terrifying, like loss, shot through Shinichi’s chest and he demanded, “How long? How long ago–”</p><p>“Nine years.”</p><p>Shinichi froze, then deflated. “You ducked the Mark,” he breathed out in disbelief.</p><p>“The last protector was my father. When they Marked me, he turned me, to cancel it out. And then he was killed.”</p><p>“I’m… sorry.”</p><p>“It’s all right,” he said, but he also suddenly decided to kneel at the bedroom’s hearth and start building a fire, likely just to busy his hands. When the fire was crackling bright in front of him he sighed and added, “I’m all right.”</p><p>In that time, Shinichi’s mind was churning. He wasn’t going to die? And all that stuff about Kaito’s past… and that moment – that flash of an <em>instant</em> when he thought Kaito would be taken by a Mark of his own that had chilled him so deeply, out of nowhere. He had no business being this attached to someone he’d known for a handful of days.</p><p>“So,” Shinichi eventually said, sitting beside Kaito in front of the fire. “Why doesn’t everybody duck the Mark by cozying up to a vampire? Seems like a decent option.”</p><p>Kaito smirked. Shinichi was sitting so close that even firelight couldn’t pass between them, and his arm had automatically come to rest around Kaito’s waist. He seemed to think at least a little more of their solution than just a “decent option”.</p><p>“How many vampires do you actually know of?” Kaito asked.</p><p>Shinichi’s eyebrows pulled down suddenly and his voice gained venom. “Two. But one of them–”</p><p>“Is with that organization. Exactly. The Marks come from them, but so do we. Or rather…” He lifted a hand and the air above his upturned palm shivered, like he’d scooped the fire’s heat into it. Then the haze took form and a faceted gem, icy blue with a burning heart of crimson, rested in his palm. “We came from this. <em>This</em> is why this town clashes with that organization, and this is how I ended up a vampire instead of Marked. But I guard it now.” The gem vanished. “And as long as I live, they won’t have it.”</p><p>“As long as you live,” Shinichi repeated, but it was slow, and his voice had gone a little vague, a little considering, with the reeling of his thoughts. The fire snapped.</p><p>“Shinichi?”</p><p>“Kaito… how do you kill a vampire?”</p><p>Kaito scoffed. “Well it’s not easy. You’d have to–”</p><p>“Weaken them first. Maybe by cutting off his food source. And hiding behind wards.” Shinichi got to his feet suddenly. “The murder victims had nothing in common,” he said, racing through the words. “Why would anybody commit random murders in a town that’s under a vampire’s protection? It didn’t make sense, but that’s just it. It’s not <em>despite</em> your protection; it’s because of it.”</p><p>“What–?”</p><p>“If I hadn’t stumbled in here when I did, you’d be dead now. <em>You</em> were the real target. And the only people who know enough to come up with those wards, who have the resources, and the motive to kill you–”</p><p>“That organization,” Kaito finished for him, also on his feet now, but he didn’t share the excitement of the solved mystery that Shinichi had. His voice was heavy with anxious dread. “If that’s the case, this just got a lot more complicated.”</p><p>“Not at all,” Shinichi replied. He shot Kaito a confident glance over his shoulder, all firelight and moonlight. “Because <em>now</em> I have a plan.”</p><p> </p><p>Secure in the knowledge that he and Kaito were both safe from the dreaded Marks, Shinichi worked and researched harder than ever. He found a way to disarm the wards in the town that had been weakening Kaito like a poison whenever he got near. With a little more research, he learned how to disarm them in a way that left them looking as though they were still active. Then he and Kaito waited, and when the organization turned up for another murder, they sprung their ambush.</p><p>Kaito was resplendent but fierce in a white uniform and cape, like a militant prince. He’d said it had been a sign of battle and challenge in the days of his father, but he’d never worn it himself. Until now.</p><p>They let exactly one of the organization members escape, to send word back to the rest that the town was protected and to relay exactly what would happened if their kind ever dared to cross its threshold again. Then Shinichi and Kaito returned to the castle.</p><p> </p><p>It was once again in the dark entrance hall that Kaito’s strength gave out and he staggered and collapsed. Shinichi didn’t catch him this time. He’d been a few paces behind, wearily closing the massive wooden doors behind them, and it took a little while for his eyes to adjust to the extra shadows within the stone walls of the castle. Even after they had, and he was sweeping the hall for Kaito’s silhouette, he looked past him before registering the heap on the floor.</p><p>“Kaito?” The name echoed against the stone, sending a wave of cold through Shinichi in the answering silence. He pushed himself forward, stumbling with tired muscles until he fell at Kaito’s side. He turned him over. “<em>Kaito</em>.”</p><p>Kaito’s eyes didn’t open. He didn’t speak, but he was breathing, his chest rising and falling like a piston, quiet, harsh puffs of breath escaping through a grimace of pain. Shinichi’s fingers found a pool of cool blood and followed it to a horrific wound in Kaito’s side. He must have hidden it with his cape after the fight.</p><p><em>So vampires bleed, </em>Shinichi thought a little numbly. He got an arm under Kaito’s shoulders and sat him up. <em>But they also heal. </em>“Kaito, can you hear me? I’m right here, so drink.” He propped Kaito against his chest and slipped a hand into his hair, guiding his face gently to the crook of his own neck. He could feel Kaito’s short little breaths raising goose bumps over his skin.</p><p>Kaito let out a pained, needy sound and opened his mouth. His lips closed around the side of Shinichi’s neck, but there was no bite. Kaito seemed to be feeling along the column of his throat with lips and tongue until he found a good place – a spot where Shinichi’s blood leapt just below the surface, hard enough to feel. Then his fangs tore into that spot, and Shinichi let out a gasping cry as his blood splashed out, sloppy and fast, dribbling down Kaito’s chin and trickling under Shinichi’s shirt. He curled over Kaito, clutching his hair and his cape in shaking grips, and tried to relax.</p><p>Kaito drank passively at first, just taking the blood as it spilled into his mouth with every beat of Shinichi’s heart. But as he gained strength he tensed in Shinichi’s hold, sitting up under his own power and grabbing onto Shinichi’s shirt with both fists, his nails tearing holes into the fabric. He didn’t stop. He moved up and down Shinichi’s neck, lapping up rivulets that had escaped and pulling hard at the cuts his fangs had made. A quiet groan he couldn’t control surfaced somewhere inside him, muffled against Shinichi’s throat. His body thrummed with approval. It had a need, and Shinichi was filling it.</p><p>Kaito pushed closer and Shinichi folded under him, his grip falling away, leaving Kaito’s hair mussed and his cape wrinkled. He lay unresisting on the floor beneath him as Kaito continued to drink. His mind was getting fuzzy. He couldn’t lift his arms anymore. The smell of blood was everywhere, the stone slick with it – his and Kaito’s both. He could still feel Kaito’s mouth working, focused now on that one point just below Shinichi’s jaw where he’d cut him open. He wondered if Kaito would ever stop.</p><p>And then, just as all feeling was lost, as the pain went away and his eyes fogged over, he heard Kaito’s voice. It was soft but it still found its way to him through his veiled senses. He was whispering in Shinichi’s ear, breathless and… happy.</p><p>“You’ll be all right. You’ll sleep now, and you’ll be all right. I promise.”</p><p>Shinichi didn’t have the strength to answer. He let out a breath and fell asleep.</p><p> </p><p>Shinichi woke in the king-size bed in the second floor master suite and stretched, letting out a groan of pleasure. He felt like he’d had the best sleep of his life. He was warm and comfortable, clean and healthy, dressed in Kaito’s pajamas with Kaito lying right beside him. He was propped on an elbow and watching him with a smile. A fire was crackling in the hearth across from the bed, and the curtains were opened wide to a view of cloudless night sky. Amidst twinkling stars, the moon was high and bright. A full day must have already passed but Shinichi didn’t mind in the slightest.</p><p>Shinichi rolled to his side, mirroring Kaito, and took him in. He looked well, not even a scar marring the pale skin when Shinichi’s eyes raked down from his face to his body, bare to the waist as though he’d known Shinichi would want some proof of his healing that he could take in with his own eyes. Shinichi smiled, content, and asked, “Why am I okay? It’s something you’re doing, right?”</p><p>Kaito breathed out a laugh. “Vampires aren’t parasites, Shinichi. It’s more like–”</p><p>“Commenalism,” Shinichi supplied with a nod. “The vampire benefits; the human isn’t significantly harmed, right? But how?”</p><p>Kaito shrugged. “Something about the bite. It gets into your veins and keeps things running while boosting your ability to replenish blood. When you’re back to normal, it washes out.” Shinichi was still smiling at him and Kaito felt a pang in his chest. “You understand, right?” he asked. “It means that I can keep feeding from you forever. I <em>can</em>,” he repeated seriously. “But that doesn’t mean you have to let me.”</p><p>Shinichi considered that. Then he sat up and pulled off his shirt.</p><p>“What are you doing?” Kaito asked, bemused.</p><p>Shinichi shifted over, pushing Kaito onto his back and bracketing him in on his hands and knees. “Living,” he answered, and bent down for an open-mouthed kiss.</p>
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